Stuck in Jail, Taiwan’s Ex-President Plays the Death Card

Ever since he was found guilty of corruption in September 2009, former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian has fought – and failed — to shorten his 17-and- half-year prison term on medical grounds. Now, he says, the battle could end with him dying behind bars.

Despite Mr. Chen’s numerous attempts to convince authorities to let him out early — from staging hunger strikes, to complaints of stomach, prostrate and heart problems, and even warning of a potential mental break down — it appears the government is unlikely to budge anytime soon.

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Former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian (C) is surrounded by policemen after paying respects to his mother-in-law during a Taoist prayer service in southern Tainan on January 6, 2012.

In the latest installment of his weekly column for Next Magazine, which ran under the headline “The Death of a Former President,” the fallen leader of the Democratic Progressive Party wrote that the public should “not be shocked if one day they wake up with to headlines saying Chen Shui-bian has died in prison.”

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“I live as a Taiwanese, I die as a Taiwanese, even my ashes will become part of the earth in Taiwan,” wrote Mr. Chen, who is known in Taiwan for his defiance of Beijing and aggressive pro-independence stance. He isn’t seeking a state funeral, he wrote, but instead wants his ashes scattered all over the island so he can always be part of it.

Mr. Chen’s dramatic warning was a direct response to President Ma Ying-jeou’s latest categorical rejection of his repeated requests to seek medical treatment outside the prison.

Earlier this week, in an interview with the partly state-funded Central News Agency, Mr. Ma said he had refused to consider Mr. Chen’s requests on medical and legal grounds, rejecting allegations from Mr. Chen’s supporters that the decision was politically motivated.

The leader of the Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, Mr. Ma has built his political career largely on the cultivation of closer relations with Beijing.

A former justice minister, Mr. Ma argued that granting the ex-leader medical parole would be no different from releasing him.

“When a person is on medical parole, it actually means he gets to stay at home or in a hospital, which is equivalent to being released,” the president said, adding medical parole is only allowed when the patient cannot receive adequate care inside the prison.

KMT spokesman Yin Wei said Mr. Chen’s condition had been evaluated by staff from a major hospital, who found he did not qualify for medical parole.

Opposition leader Su Tseng-chang has struck back at Mr. Ma, arguing that Mr. Chen’s only wishes to receive better quality treatment, and that the former president would return to prison once his treatment had ended.

The president’s supporters have argued that Mr. Chen is being subjected to the same treatment and standards as any other prisoner — a sign of the island’s respect for rule of law. But some political analysts have dismissed the rule-of-law argument as naïve in a place like Taiwan, where politics is (sometimes literally) a blood sport.

“Being a former president, [Chen] is not just a common folk. Any move his makes can stir up a political storm, therefore it must be handled with utmost prudence,” Hsu Yu-fang, a professor at National Dong Hwa University, wrote in an editorial published in the Apple Daily newspaper on Wednesday.

It is understandable that Mr. Ma is unwilling to stand down, Mr. Hsu said, but due to the fact that Mr. Chen is not a typical prisoner, his treatment in jail should be subject to negotiation.

“To put it simply, there might not be a lot of talk when an accident happens to a prisoner. But if something happens to Mr. Chen, the size of the political storm that could ensue is unthinkable,” the professor cautioned.

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